According to Ukrainian officials, Russian forces continue to attack the city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, shelling the city so heavily that emergency services are unable to recover the dead from the destroyed buildings.
This was the fifth consecutive day of attacks on the Donbass city, the focus of Moscow’s 19monthlong invasion.
Both Russia and the United States have described the resurgence of fighting around Avdiivka as a new Russian offensive.
Fighting intensified in other sectors of the thousandkilometer front, with a senior Ukrainian commander saying clashes further north had “significantly worsened” in recent days.
Vitaliy Barabash, head of Avdiivka’s military administration, said residents had a rare break from the airstrikes overnight, but attacks resumed at dawn.
“They attack with everything they have. They are shooting, artillery, rockets, mortars and lots of planes,” Barabash said on national television.
All rescue and rescue operations have been suspended, he said, although there are likely victims trapped under the rubble of buildings leveled by bombings and airstrikes. “No operations can be carried out under these conditions. It’s scary to leave because the street is under fire. And it is not easier to stay because there is no place, no basement that can withstand the attacks.”
Avdiivka is a symbol of resistance
Barabash said 1,620 people remained in Avdiivka, a city that had 32,000 residents before the Russian invasion.
The city, 20 kilometers west of Russiancontrolled Donetsk, has become a symbol of resistance. It withstood attacks in 2014 when Russianbacked separatists seized territory in eastern Ukraine, and its protection has been significantly strengthened since then.
Ukraine’s fourmonthlong counteroffensive has made some progress both in the east, near the devastated city of Bakhmut, captured by Russian troops in May, and in the south, where Kiev aims to reach the Sea of Azov. But the successes were slow and gradual.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukrainian ground forces, visited troops near Kupiansk, further north, and said Russian forces had regrouped after suffering losses and would attack near the village of Makiivka and toward Kupiansk.
Syrskyi said Russian forces carried out “dozens” of attacks daily but Ukrainian troops held their position.
The governor of the Kherson region reported that a woman was killed in the Russian shelling of the city of Beryslav and that explosions were recorded in the city of Kherson.
Putin says Russia is improving its position
Russian President Vladimir Putin said this Sunday that Kiev’s counteroffensive had failed and that Russian forces were “improving their positions” on almost the entire front line.
“What happens now at the contact line is called ‘active defense’. Our troops are improving their positions in almost this entire area, in a very large space,” Putin said in an interview with Russian state television.
According to the Russian president, the Kupyansk, Zaporizhia and Avdiivka fronts are at stake. “It is an active defense with an improvement of the positions in certain areas,” he affirmed.
Putin emphasized that the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched at the beginning of June had “completely failed.” “However, we know that the opposing side is preparing new offensive operations in certain combat areas,” he said.